Celebrating Our Roots

In order to see how far you’ve come, it’s important to take a look at where you started. In honor of our 5-Year Corporate Responsibility report, I sat down with Dr. Charles Geschke and Dr. John Warnock, the co-chairmen of the Adobe board, who founded Adobe 31 years ago, to talk about our corporate responsibility roots and how they’ve grown. Here’s a sneak peek of our conversation:

On the company’s rootsDr. Geschke: When we started, we wanted to build a company that we wanted to work at. That meant giving back to the community. We set aside a percentage of our profits each year and then we put the employees in control of our philanthropic direction. We wanted employees to be proud that they worked at a company that was supporting our community’s needs.

On being a good corporate citizen
Dr. Warnock: We had no idea how successful Adobe would become. We’re thrilled to see that the company continues to give back in so many ways. It’s amazing to see what these employees have accomplished.

On the evolution of our Corporate Responsibility program
Dr. Warnock: Our corporate headquarters is a power plant. That means the building produces its own energy. Now they’re aiming to produce as much energy as they consume. It’s incredible to see how far Adobe has come in all areas of CR.

We’ve made some pretty significant changes over the past few years and we have a lot more to do, but we wouldn’t be where we are if it weren’t for the commitment to the community Adobe established from the very beginning. Next up: Net zero in 2014!